Barabbas
/bəˈɹæbəs/
"barabbas" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Barabbas” is uncommon English (frequency #82,078 among 4,121 “B” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #82,078
- frequency rank, English
- 4,121
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - In the accounts of the Passion of Christ, an insurrectionary whom Pontius Pilate freed at the Passover feast in Jerusalem, instead of Jesus.
Corpus desk
Index EN-barabbas · Barabbas · English
Barabbas · rank #82,078 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #82,078
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,121
- PHOTO-FINISH banishes
Nearest frequency peer: banishes (-2 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “Barabbas”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Baluch
Baluch
17,927 corpus weight
- banes
banes
17,926 corpus weight
- banishes
banishes
17,925 corpus weight
- Barabbas
Barabbas
17,923 corpus weight
- Basinger
Basinger
17,920 corpus weight
- baze
baze
17,918 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “Barabbas” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Barabbas |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /bəˈɹæbəs/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #82,078 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “Barabbas” in English
Rare enough to double-check
Barabbas is uncommon English at frequency #82,078 among 4,121 “B” headwords, classed as aproper noun, transcribed /bəˈɹæbəs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "In the accounts of the Passion of Christ, an insurrectionary whom Pontius Pilate freed at the Passover feast in Jerusalem, instead of Jesus.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for Barabbas, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Latin Barabbās, from Ancient Greek Βαραββᾶς (Barabbâs), from Aramaic בּר אַבָּא (bar ʾabbā, “son of the father”). The correct English form is Barabbas, spelled B-A-R-A-B-B-A-S.
Definition
- 1In the accounts of the Passion of Christ, an insurrectionary whom Pontius Pilate freed at the Passover feast in Jerusalem, instead of Jesus.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how Barabbas appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
And there was one named Barabbas, which lay bound with them that had made inſurrection with him, who had committed murder in the inſurrection.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin Barabbās, from Ancient Greek Βαραββᾶς (Barabbâs), from Aramaic בּר אַבָּא (bar ʾabbā, “son of the father”).
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "Barabbas", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).